It is well known that the volume shrinkage of dental compositions upon curing results in high stress and micro fractures in the composite. Such defects may lead to clinical failure of the composite material. Therefore, it is important to develop dental composites with a reduced volume shrinkage while maintaining the outstanding physical properties of current materials.
Current commercial (meth)acrylate-based composites exhibit a volume shrinkage of 2-4 percent (%) upon polymerization. The goal is to reduce the shrinkage below 2% while maintaining other desirable physical properties, such as compressive strength and viscosity. Although many types of components have been developed for use in dental composites, particularly (meth)acrylate-based composites, to reduce polymerization shrinkage, composites based on them generally suffer from reduced physical properties compared to commercial products, such as that available from 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn. under the trade designation FILTEK Z250.
Thus, there is still a need for new components that can be added to (meth)acrylate-based dental compositions that provide reduced shrinkage.